Before 2020, high schoolers, college students, and even kids in elementary school did not have a single thought of online classes. But, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit America and commenced a nation and worldwide lockdown, we were forced to adjust to a new way of learning: online classes. Unfortunately, in my opinion, I believe that online learning ruined education for my generation as well as generations to come.
To begin, the teachers and students were very unprepared to go into a nationwide pandemic. We were all under the impression that we would have two weeks off school and complete our homework and classwork online, which we were used to. Two weeks turned into three months of no school, and then almost a year of hybrid classes. We attended school on certain days of the week, then were online for the rest. Learning in the classroom turned into learning from a computer screen, and the only sense of communication we had with our friends was through social media and Zoom chats.
Because of this, online classes became more and more common, to the point where students could choose to go back to school or stay fully remote until the mask mandate and lockdown was lifted. Personally, I believe that online classes don’t work at all for several reasons. To start, I think that online classes allow students to slack off on homework due to the fact that Google and AI can give us the answers we need in seconds. At the very least, it causes us to not pay attention in the classroom because the classroom is now a Zoom call. This is an issue because it does not allow students to actually learn the lesson that is being taught, but to just look up what was being taught and then turn off the camera and do something else.
Another reason that I believe online classes don’t work is because it takes away from improving our social and public speaking skills, such as through presentations. Because of online classes, we have gotten so used to staring at a computer screen and doing work online that when it comes to having to work with people in-person, we actually struggle with making simple conversation. Along with this, when it comes to having to get up in front of a class and present or read, no one knows how to interact with the class or present.
Online classes have caused so many social and educational problems that I believe we will never be able to recover from, which is a main reason as to why these classes don’t really work at all.
